The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has led to 53 cultural sites being damaged, UNESCO said on Friday.

Among the buildings were 29 churches, 16 historical buildings, four museums and four monuments, UNESCO Deputy Director General for Culture Ernesto Ottone Ramirez said in Paris.

Kharkiv in the northeast of the country is one of the areas of Ukraine most affected in this respect.

Among other things, the Holocaust Memorial, the State Theatre for Opera and Ballet and the Art Museum were hit by the Russian bombardments, Ottone Ramirez said. Kharkiv is the second-largest city in Ukraine.

Kyiv is under threat, but there is as yet no evidence of damage to the country's seven UNESCO world heritage sites, which include St. Sophia's Cathedral and the Cave Monastery.

The situation in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, which has been cut off from the surrounding countryside by Russian troops, is considered extremely complicated.

Chernihiv is one of the oldest cities in Ukraine with numerous churches and monasteries dating from the 10th to the 19th century. Among them is St. Catherine's Church, which is on the UNESCO list of over the 53 destroyed and damaged buildings.

Since the beginning of the Russian attack on Ukraine, UNESCO and other international cultural institutions have launched several initiatives to protect cultural sites and assets, including setting up a satellite monitoring system of important Ukrainian sites and monuments